Dalai Lama Still a Thorn in India-China Ties

Periodically, China reminds India that no, it isn’t happy that the Dalai Lama and his supporters are based, and thriving, just over the border.

Ashwini Bhatia/Associated Press

China is upset that the Dalai Lama would be in New Delhi at the same time as one of its top foreign ministry officials.

It happened again on Monday, when China once again made it clear that it opposed countries that support the Tibetan spiritual leader. “We oppose any country that provides a platform for his anti-China activities in any form,” a spokesman of China’s foreign ministry said Monday. That was a not-so-veiled reference to India, where the Dalai Lama and the exiled Tibetan administration has been based since the late 1950s.

This time around, China was upset that the Dalai Lama would be in New Delhi at the same time as one of its top foreign ministry officials, Dai Bingguo. Mr. Dai was supposed to meet Indian National Security Adviser Shivshankar Menon Monday for the latest round of talks on the nations’ disputed borders.

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But the Dalai Lama’s plans to also travel to Delhi Tuesday led China to cancel that meeting. The Tibetan leader is expected to attend an international Buddhist conference, and a literary event.

Srikanth Kondapalli, professor of Chinese studies at Delhi’s Jawaharlal Nehru University, says Chinese authorities were worried the Dalai Lama would use the opportunity to publicly criticize China. “Dai Bingguo was escaping from any possible criticism of China,” Mr. Kondapalli said in an interview.

China considers the Dalai Lama a separatist and accuses him of inciting self-immolations by Tibetans in China, which he denies.

In a message to the Buddhist gathering released Monday, the Dalai Lama wrote of Buddhism in Tibet and mentioned the “many changes” it has witnessed in the past 50 years, an allusion to China’s invasion which likely made Beijing uncomfortable.

China had earlier tried – and failed – to press India to prevent the Dalai Lama from addressing the conference, Indian media reported. To appease Beijing, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and President Pratibha Patil said they would not attend the Buddhist gathering. This was not enough for China.

India’s Ministry of External Affairs said in a statement Friday that a new date had not yet been fixed.

China likely realized that the round of talks were not going to break the decades-long dispute over the border and did not deem it important enough to send their emissary while the Dali Lama was in town.

“Dai Bingguo’s visit was not going to result in any border dispute resolution,” said Mr. Kondapalli. “If they have not resolved it in 30 years, I don’t think they would’ve resolved it now.”

The two Asian giants have a 3,000-kilometer-long border, over which they fought a war in 1962, which Beijing won. The greatest point of contention is the Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh, parts of which are claimed by China. Beijing also administers a part of Ladakh which India claims.

There is a Tibetan dimension to the border dispute: Most of the border cuts through Tibetan-majority regions. In the 1962 war, China invaded Arunachal Pradesh, which it claims is historically South Tibet and should form part of its Tibetan territorial holdings. Beijing pulled back from the region after winning the war but still claims much of the region.

China also is sensitive over India’s failure to recognize its claim that Tibet has historically formed part of China. New Delhi, unlike Nepal, recognizes Tibet, but only as a defacto part of China since Beijing invaded in the 1950s.

While Mr. Dai’s trip was unlikely to break new ground on the border dispute, it could have paved the way for a visit to India by Xi Jinping, a senior Communist Party official who is widely expected to succeed Chinese President Hu Jintao next year. Although no official date had been set, Mr. Xi was expected to come to India in the first quarter of next year but that trip is now likely to be pushed back, Mr. Kondapalli said.

Mr. Dai’s visit could also have been a forum in which to address other bilateral issues, like the South China Sea dispute and regional security.

The latest Dalai Lama spat, however, does not place a major strain on Indo-Chinese relations, says Mr. Kondapalli. The two countries have improved relations in recent months after a row last year of China’s decision to deny a visa to a senior Indian general a visa for an official visit. The countries suspended high-level defense talks in the wake of the dispute but are now planning a meeting of defense officials in New Delhi from Dec. 9.

In the meantime, China is likely to keep a close eye on the Dalai Lama’s comments while he’s in Delhi. Should he say anything that could be interpreted as a criticism of China, the upcoming defense talks could be in jeopardy.

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